Final Answer!

If you’ve followed earlier posts about my steering wheel quandary, it looks as if I finally made a decision about what I want.

I started lacing the leather steering wheel cover in place a couple days ago, and despite many interruptions and a few frustrations, it is finally done.

The reason for a different steering wheel was partly because the Hollywood style rim was crumbling junk, which meant an expensive repair. The optional horn ring was surprisingly nice, but still needed re-plating, and since it’s pot metal, that too would cost a lot. Also, the splines on the stock Plymouth shaft were not the same as the truck shaft, meaning one of the parts would have to be reworked. More expense.

This is the Hollywood style horn ring:

 

Since I wasn’t especially fond of the chest-crushing point on the Hollywood horn ring, I decided to focus the wheel choice on a later, stock Mopar wheel for a base to build on, and do my best to customize it to look a little more like a possible fifties style.

I decided the stock wheel I removed from my ’73 truck was the best choice. It was the same depth as the one in the Plymouth, and it was the same 17” diameter. The other wheels I had available were smaller and without power steering I needed a larger wheel.This is the way it looked in my truck:

The seventies-style plastic-look didn’t seem right for a ’56 interior that boasted lots of brightwork, so the wheel I designed had to better fit in. The main styling feature I wanted to keep was a stock ’55-’56 center cap from the standard equipment wheel. As mentioned in a previous post, I did that using a road wheel aftermarket cap that I cut to fit. Since I also wanted a large expanse of chrome, I made sheet metal pieces to fit between the spokes, and after seeing them plated, I’m pleased to see them look so nice.

This is what I ended up with, and I think it fits in quite well with the modified Fury interior:

If I had used an aftermarket steering column and wheel, or restored the stock parts, the bill would have likely been well over $3,000. Using all Chrysler parts from my collection and mostly my own labor, the bill came to less than $500, including plating and leather cover!